How Does an Electric Crock Pot Work?

The Benefits of Crock Pots

Crock pots are wonderful for cooking when you will be gone all day. You come home from work and your dinner is done. Another name for crock pots are slow cookers. This is because it takes four to eight hours of cooking to complete a recipe. They are great for making soups or stews or anything where all your ingredients go into the same pot. They also keep your food healthy by retaining the vitamins and minerals, normally thrown away with the boiled water.

Types of Crock Pots

Crock pots come in different sizes from a small 2.5 quart to a very large family size 7-quart size. Most have a removable ceramic insert that is easy to take out and put right on your table to serve. Some of the older models are all one piece and are very hard to clean. Heat controls on crock pots are high, low and off. The high temperature will usually cook your food in four hours, low in eight. The newest addition to the crock pot family are the tiny ones made for hot dips and melted cheese. This type usually does not have a heat control on it, it is just made to keep things warm.

What you can Cook in a Crock Pot

You can get a recipe book that will include just about everything. Most things that you can make in an oven can be cooked in a crock pot, with the exception of larger roasts and turkeys. Soups and stews are great crock pot meals. You can just throw everything in there and let it cook. Meatballs and sausage can cook in the sauce all day long and come out tender and full of flavor. Throw in a pork roast and barbecue sauce and when it's done, just pull the pork apart for pulled pork sandwiches. Tough pieces of meat, like chuck roasts, cooked in a can of creamed soup, come out falling apart tender. If you've never used a crock pot before, you don't know what your missing.